With help from Joanne Kenen, Jason Millman, Jen Haberkorn and Lester Feder

STATES THE NEXT BATTLEGROUND IN CONTRACEPTION FIGHT – The contraception fight is expanding far beyond Washington, with several states trying to block the new Obama administration rule requiring most insurers to cover contraception. It combines a hot-button social issue with conservative states’ hatred of the health reform law, virtually guaranteeing the fight will carry on for months. History seems to be repeating itself — last year, legislatures in red states passed laws to block abortion coverage in the ACA’s health insurance exchanges, even as those states resisted creating exchanges in the first place. So far, variants of legislation allowing employers to opt out of the contraception coverage requirement on religious grounds have been filed in at least three states. How will the administration respond? The POLITICO Pro story: http://politico.pro/ylwSjG.

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WHAT COMMITTEE PASSED ANTI-ABORTION BILLS? The Illinois state House committee that normally deals with farm and wildlife issues, that’s what. The House Agricultural and Conservation Committee overwhelmingly passed two controversial measures Tuesday, before a packed room that included opponents wearing T-shirts that stated: "Women are NOT livestock." One would impose new building codes on abortion facilities and another would require doctors to take an ultrasound of a fetus before performing an abortion, although the woman could choose not to view it, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports: http://bit.ly/xPiDuD.

Good Wednesday to you and welcome to PULSE. We hope that you didn’t give up health care news on Fat Tuesday, especially reproductive rights news. Because PULSE has a full plate of it for you, but many other dishes, too, that have nothing to do with sex.

“Thank you, Lord, for another day, help my brother along his way. Please bring PULSE to the neighborhood.” (h/t to David Nather)

TODAY IN POLITICO PRO:

-- CMS EHB FAQ OMG? Two sentences buried in a guidance released on Friday have set off alarms with consumer advocates, who say they may have exposed a significant loophole in the health reform law’s consumer protections. The Pro story: http://politico.pro/yd4dAM

-- DEMS SAY GOP IS BLOCKING THEM FROM TELEVISING A HEARING— First, House Democrats couldn’t get a woman onto the all-male panel at a contraception hearing last week. Now, they’ve invited her to testify at their own unofficial hearing — and they say the Republicans won’t let them televise it. The POLITICO story http://politi.co/zVYN4G.

-- THOUGHT SGR WAS GOING AWAY? THINK AGAIN – Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) is still carrying the torch for using war savings to repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate formula. More for Pros: http://politico.pro/xcrI2I.

VIRIGINIA AGAIN DELAYS VOTE ON ITS CONTROVERSIAL ULTRASOUND BILL – And some legislators suggested on Tuesday that they may attempt to soften the bill requiring ultrasound before abortions — in some cases transvaginal ultrasounds — following protests Monday that drew more than 1,000 women. The Virginia-Pilot’s update: http://bit.ly/A5aRj0.

NEW DRUG SHORTAGE LAWSUIT — More than two dozen people who suffered medication shortages have filed a lawsuit against HHS, FDA and NIH, arguing their rights were violated because the federal government failed to take adequate enforcement actions against drugmakers and allow for alternative means to protect supplies, Pharmalot reported Tuesday: http://bit.ly/ytmFlT

** A message from the Stop The HIT Coalition: The Health Insurance Tax (HIT) is one of the largest tax increases included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and will cost small business employees with a family plan $5,000 in higher premiums over the decade. **

HAPPENING TODAY: ANOTHER REPUBLICAN PRIMARY DEBATE – Some of PULSE’s colleagues have had about enough of these — but it’s been so long! Yes, the umpteenth debate of the season — and the last debate before Tuesday’s Michigan and Arizona primaries — is tonight, hosted by CNN and the Republican Party of Arizona. If you decide not to watch, we understand. PULSE will have all the health care outtakes you need.

CO-OP FUNDING ANNOUNCED, REPUBLICANS POUNCE — The consumer oriented and owned insurance program has already been cut from $6 billion in the ACA to $3.4 billion now. But Tuesday, CCIIO announced $639 million in the first low- or no-interest loans to CO-OP sponsors in eight states. The biggest recipient: the Freelancers Union, which will use $340 million of the funds to launch plans in New Jersey, New York and Oregon. House Ways and Means Committee Republicans pounced Tuesday afternoon. “It appears as though the Obama Administration will stop at nothing to reward their political friends, even if it means blatantly ignoring the law,” the Republicans said in a release: http://1.usa.gov/yTzmZS

… AND THEY HAVE A POINT … TO A POINT — The law requires that CO-OP sponsors be nonprofits and not pre-existing insurers, but the Freelancers Union offers insurance to its members in New York through the affiliated Freelancers Insurance Company. In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, Barbara Smith, HHS’s associate director for the CO-OP program, said that the CO-OPs sponsored by the Freelancers Union — and anyone else — must have a corporate governing structure that is independent of any insurance company, although they may contract with existing insurers to provide certain services. The Republicans question the Freelancer’s Union nonprofit status as well.

AND YOUR HEALTH IT NEWS ROUNDUP — Well, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society conference continues in Las Vegas today, and health IT gurus are wondering one thing: Will CMS release the stage two “meaningful use” rules already? Those are the ground rules for the next phase of CMS’s program to encourage the nationwide adoption of electronic health records. Multiple sources tell PULSE that they are “confident” that they will be published today, when officials from CMS and ONC are scheduled to speak on the subject.

… BUT THE RULES WERE EXPECTED TUESDAY OR EVEN LAST WEEK FOR THAT MATTER — A report in InformationWeek from the HIMSS conference Tuesday says attendees were surprised when they showed up at a “stage two” seminar, primarily to hear more talk about the old rules: http://bit.ly/xSfdWC.

WHAT SOME CONSUMER ADVOCATES ARE LOOKING FOR — Christine Bechtel, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, told PULSE on Tuesday that she wanted to see two major provisions emphasized in the next phase: digitally transmitted reports of care among doctors on a patient’s care team. And “secure messaging” between doctors and patients. Bechtel’s organization released a report last week surveying patients’ experience of electronic and paper medical records. “They said the same thing over and over — I just want my doctors to talk to each other,” Bechtel said. “It’s a workflow change, not a technology issue. The technology is there.” Pro’s story about the survey, ICYMI: http://politico.pro/y8MLx3

CONCERNS OVER MEDICAL SERVICE CODING OVERHAUL CONTINUE, TOO – The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives sent a letter Tuesday urging HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius “to move quickly and decisively” to set a new compliance date for the ICD-10, the next generation set of diagnosis and procedure codes for billing CMS. Sebelius announced that the date would be postponed earlier this month following complaints from provider groups about difficulties in complying. CHIME’s release w/link to the letter: http://bit.ly/AePMjX.

DISABILITY RIGHTS CENTER WEIGHS IN ON SCOTUS CASE — From the better-late-than-never files, the DLRC announced late Tuesday that it filed an amicus brief Friday in support of health reform. "The provision of federal funds to cover currently uninsured individuals will not only bring down costs to taxpayers, it has the potential to save countless lives," said Shawn Kravich, associate director of the DLRC’s Cancer Legal Resource Center, in a release. The brief: http://bit.ly/AEzD21.

SUSTINET SUBSTITUTE — Connecticut’s version of a state-based public option, SustiNet, hit opposition and funding problems, but a piece of the original idea is moving ahead, allowing municipal and school district employees to join the state employees’ health plan. It’s a more modest version of a proposal that would have allowed nonprofits and small businesses to also join the pool, but some lawmakers say they will try to revisit that as a phase two of the pooling plan. The story from the Connecticut Mirror: http://bit.ly/AFjZlx.

WHAT WE’RE READING, by Jennifer Haberkorn

The New York Times editorial page blasts Congress for not implementing a long-term replacement for the Sustainable Growth Rate. http://nyti.ms/wGh6km

Nebraska lawmakers heard three hours of debate Tuesday on setting up a state health exchange, the AP reports. http://bit.ly/zJUKfM

A freelancers union is receiving $341 million in government loans to start a health insurance plan through the health law's co-ops program, Bloomberg reports. http://buswk.co/xq7OXc The AP covers the co-operatives in eight states, too. http://wapo.st/xRnG1b

Former OMB director Peter Orszag writes in a Bloomberg piece that when the economy is down, the average American's life expectancy goes up. http://bloom.bg/wLrbBQ

Patricia Dennehy, a professor at the University of California San Francisco School of Nursing, writes in a L.A. Times op-ed that nurse practitioners can play an important role as health reform is implemented. http://lat.ms/x2H8KY

** A message from the Stop The HIT Coalition: The Health Insurance Tax (HIT) is a costly, unfair and hidden tax on small businesses that begins in 2014. President Obama asked Congress to pass an agenda that helps small businesses, and there is legislation in Congress to do just that by repealing the Health Insurance Tax. Senators John Barrasso, Orrin Hatch and Olympia Snowe have introduced S.1880, “The Jobs and Premium Protection Act," and a bipartisan House companion bill has more than 110 co-sponsors. It's time for Congress to act: pass this legislation and send it to the President's desk. Learn more at www.StopTheHIT.com. **

** A message from America’s biopharmaceutical companies: America’s biopharmaceutical research companies are developing 87 medicines to help the more than 5 million patients in the United States living with Alzheimer’s disease. There are many reasons Alzheimer’s is one of the most complex diseases researchers have ever studied. To start, the brain is the most complex and inaccessible organ in the body and the disease is stubbornly progressive. However, as our understanding of the disease grows so does our ability to find new potential treatment approaches and, ultimately, effective new medicines. Read the new report. http://onphr.ma/2hoi49h**

About The Author

Brett Norman is a reporter at POLITICO, covering health care and pharma politics. He has worked as a science writer with the brilliant biomedical researchers at Rockefeller University in New York and started his career covering cops, courts and government for the Pensacola News Journal, where he was on a team of reporters twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Public Service. He graduated from the University of Chicago and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and lives in Washington with his wife, the journalist Kate Dailey, and their toddler son. Brett is a 2015-2016 Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism fellow.